A Low High

When I saw the trailers for the comedy Your Highness earlier this year, I admit I was a bit intrigued. The "high" fantasy movie looked like it could be some dopey fun... or just plain stupid. When the movie hit theaters, the critics weighed in and resoundingly declared it was indeed just plain stupid. So I never went to see it. But I did drop it into my Netflix queue. And months later, here it was.

I hoped for more, but expected very little. I got exactly what I expected. The skilled and funny cast (including Danny McBride, James Franco, and Natalie Portman) leads you to want more, but that's only setting you up for disappointment. I can't tell for sure what it says that this was Natalie Portman's first movie after winning an Oscar for Black Swan -- does she have a big sense of humor, or no sense of taste?

I felt willing to turn off my brain and just laugh, but the script served up very few funny jokes. In fact, the biggest laughs of the movie came courtesy of the costume department (comically large codpiece) and the props departments (comically large minotaur.. er, trophy). In between, the nimble cast wrings out a couple of unwilling laughs, but mostly just makes you tolerate the bad movie.

I wasn't expecting something as good as The Princess Bride, but is it too much to ask for one other good comedy-fantasy movie? I guess so. Your Highness gets a D+.